CITY TRANSPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 6

CITY TRANSPORT

Sir, —Has the City Council ever made any inquiries into the history cf electric trolley buses? My impression is that as a practicable proposition electric trolley buses are as old as electric trams. Would it not be quite in order, Ihen, to ask Sir William Goodman why he new recommends electric trolley buses for Dunedin, whereas he was formerly in favour of electric trams? Sir William could only reply, I suppose, that he does not claim infallibility. The lesson for us is to look fully into any proposition before spending a lot of money on it. And in this connection I suggest that the City Council should make inquiries as to the practicability of a proposal contained in a paragraph of the Daily Times of March 12 as follows:—“There is a new post-war possibility for the world’s large cities in electrified roads, over which electricallydriven buses and other vehicles may travel without dangerous and unsightly tramlines or overhead trolley cables,” says the London publication, Practical Engineering. “A two-years’ trial of a revolutionary transport system invented by Victor Kranssler, a well-known Russian engineer, has, it was disclosed in London recently, been pronounced successful. If the system were adopted in Britain it would entirely change London’s passenger transport plans. The Kranssler system provides for strips of metallic alloy, the composition of which is secret, laid beneath the road surface. These act as current carriers, but the vehicle on the surface has no direct contact with them. Instead, it is fitted with an induction device having the appearance of a largo radio set, which absorbs the necessary power to drive the motors.”—l am, etc., Dunedin, May 19. M.